Chinese graduate students studying in Japan were caught assisting over 800 TOEIC test-takers with cheating during a two-year period, according to Chinese media.
On the 9th, according to the Central News Agency in Taiwan, a 27-year-old Chinese national named Wang was arrested in May on suspicion of aiding in TOEIC exam cheating while attending graduate school at Kyoto University in Japan.
According to media reports, he was apprehended for hiding a small microphone in his mask to transmit answers to other test-takers and for carrying items such as 'smart glasses', an electronic device resembling glasses, during the TOEIC exam conducted in Itabashi, Tokyo.
An official from the International Business Communication Association (IIBC), which oversees the TOEIC exam in Japan, stated that after investigating test-taker records since May 2023, 803 individuals had submitted addresses that were either the same as Wang's or had only different room numbers.
The association said it was a method that exploited the fact that testing locations are determined by addresses and concluded that those test-takers may have received answers from this man during the exam.
As a result, all past exam scores of these 803 test-takers will be invalidated, and they will be disqualified from taking the exam for the next five years.
According to the Hong Kong Sing Tao Daily, Wang stated to the police that he intervened in the exam after receiving a message in Chinese during the last winter saying, 'You can receive compensation if you go to the test venue.' Japanese police suspect that a Chinese organization may have orchestrated Wang's actions.
This issue reportedly surfaced when the IIBC informed the police of 'anomalous circumstances.'
Reports indicate that the IIBC notified the police of the unusually high number of Chinese test-takers who scored 900 points (out of a perfect score of 990), the fact that some heard quiet Chinese voices during the TOEIC exam, and the discovery that the same individual had taken the exam multiple times.